The 28-page indictment says Stevens, who is the longest-serving Republican senator in history, “provided false information in financial disclosure forms filed with the Senate that required him to report items of value he had received.”

He is accused of receiving substantial improvements to property that he owns in Alaska, new vehicles in exchange for older ones and household goods from 2001 to 2006. The indictment says the Senator received gifts from oil services company VECO corporation and its top executive.

“Stevens knew the requirements of the financial disclosure forms and knowingly and intentionally sought to conceal and cover up his receipt of things of value,” the indictment said.

The charges may improve Democrats’ hopes of increasing their Senate majority, now at 51-49, and opens up the race for other Republican contenders. Stevens is running for his seventh term in November, but the charges mean his prospects for winning just “went up in smoke,” said Anchorage pollster Marc Hellenthal.

While the charges are good news for Alaskans who have been unhappy with Stevens for some time, many are critical that the case has dragged on for too long. July 30 marks the one-year anniversary of an FBI and IRS raid on Stevens’s home as part of a court-authorized search warrant.

Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, is charged with seven counts of making false statements on his Senate financial disclosure forms. The charges are the result of an investigation that has lasted several years, coordinated by the justice Department’s Office of Public Integrity.

The indictment leaves the GOP race for the U.S. Senate “wide open,” reports the Anchorage Daily News. “Ted’s prospects for winning the primary, they obviously just went up in smoke,” said Anchorage pollster Marc Hellenthal. “It kind of opens up the Republican primary.” The newspaper gives a rundown of top contenders for the spot.

Federal agents raided Stevens’s home on July 30, “focusing on records related to his relationship with an oil field services contractor jailed in a public corruption investigation,” the Associated Press reported. He had been under investigation since 2000 for a project that more than doubled the size of his home in Girdwood, overseen by contractor Bill Allen, founder of VECO Corp.

The Alaska Report writes “Stevens refuses to answer questions, continuing to leave Alaskans in the dark about everything from his investigation by the FBI to how he pays his legal bills. Alaskans have had enough of the secret, closed-door, business as usual—they want and deserve real answers.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, reacted to the news about Stevens Tuesday: “I have served with Sen. Stevens for my entire congressional career. It’s a sad day for us, a sad day for him,” said Reid, who did not offer advice about whether Stevens should step down from his Senate seat or from his committees.